This invention relates generally to medication dosage control and pertains more particularly to a medication dosage container having facility for dosage control.
From applicant""s perspective, which is widely that of the pharmacological community, while the primary drug problem facing society is illicit drug usage, a quite serious secondary drug problem lies in medication usage errors. This problem is heightened when one considers that the vast majority of medication users are elderly and may have vision and memory difficulties and that many thereof are required to take different medicines with different dosages over different time periods.
The discipline associated with dispensing of medication to a patient in a hospital (xe2x80x9cin-patientxe2x80x9d medication dispensing) lessens the secondary drug problem. A dispensing dolly is loaded, per patient and per time of distribution with the involved medications and patient identification. A nurse moves the dolly from patient to patient and dispenses the required medication. The dolly is then replenished with medication for the next time of distribution and the dispensing recurs at such next time.
The prior art evidences various approaches seen to address the secondary drug problem for patients who are not beneficiaries of xe2x80x9cin-patientxe2x80x9d medication dispensing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,106, a pill receptacle is provided containing a plurality of pills of the same type of medication and a dispensing device is attached to the open top of the receptacle, closing the same. The dispensing device includes plural compartments and transfer apparatus for advancing a single pill from the pill receptacle through the compartments for delivery to a medicant. A similar approach is taken in U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,387.
The referenced patents are seen as providing a single, portable structure adapted to contain medicine for plural given dosages and to selectively and repetitively dispense a given dosage, thus partly emulating the xe2x80x9cin-patientxe2x80x9d regimen. However, the structures provided are seen as relatively complex, expensive to manufacture and not adapted for use with commercial medicinal dosage containers.
In his assessing of present commercially sold medication dosage devices, applicant has confronted a still further approach, depicted in FIGS. 29 and 30 hereof in its component parts relevant to the subject invention. Here, an upstanding cylindrical outer container 300 defines an interior hollow having a lower portion 302 and an upper portion 304. A ledge 306 is formed between the upper and lower portions. An insert/separator 308 for the container has a floor 310 dimensioned to be supported by ledge 306 and a cylindrical sidewall 312 integral with floor 310 and extending to open mouth 314. Cap 316 serves as a closure member for the depicted commercially-available dosage device.
When inserted in container 300, insert 308 divides the container into an upper compartment defined by the interior of the insert, i.e., the volume bounded by floor 310 and sidewall 312, and a lower compartment defined by the container volume below the insert and ledge 306. The upper compartment may be filled with a given medication dosage, e.g., a one-day supply, and the lower compartment may be filled with a multiple-day supply, e.g., a week""s supply. Use of the device is understood to involve a medical care provider, or the drug user himself/herself, to remove the insert, to remove a one-day dosage supply from the lower compartment, to place the one-day dosage supply into the insert and to place the insert in the container and then to apply the closure member to the container.
Advantage attends this commercial device in that simple inspection of the contents of the insert will enable the medical care provider, or the drug user, to ascertain whether the one-day supply has been ingested. The device is also simpler than the above-discussed patented devices. There remains the disadvantage, however, that the structure is not adapted for use with commercial medicinal dosage containers. Thus, commercial medicinal dosage containers are molded about a pin which defines a continuous interior sidewall, typically tapered to facilitate removal of the formed container from the forming pin. No structure akin to ledge 306, requisite for supporting insert 308, is present in the commercial dosage containers.
U.S Pat. No. 4,420,083 also discloses a medicine container which has compartments for daily and total supply of pills. In this container, an elongate, flat insert is wedged against the interior cylindrical sidewall of the container and extends from the floor of the container to its open mouth. The container is thus provided with vertically extending first and second compartments. The total dosage is placed in the first compartment and a daily dosage is placed in the second compartment and a closure member (cap) is applied to the container.
In patient or caretaker use of the container, the cap is removed from the container. Since the daily dosage is on the floor of the container second compartment, the container need be inverted to obtain the daily dosage. In order to prevent escape of pills from the first compartment, it is necessary to deflect the upper portion of the insert to close the first compartment. Further, to preclude a patient or caretaker from mistakenly deflecting the insert to close the second compartment and take pills from the first compartment, radially, inwardly-directed stops are provided at the top of the container second compartment, precluding such mistake. When the daily dosage is fully taken, the patient or caretaker removes a further daily dosage from the first compartment and places the same in the second compartment.
Need for the stops precludes use of commercial medicinal dosage containers.
U.S Pat. No. 4,475,654 also discloses a medicine container which has compartments for daily and total supply of pills. In this device, a container which is of commercial medicinal dosage type is used in combination with a closure member which is formed with an accessible compartment for storage of a daily dosage. The total pill supply is placed in the container. A daily dosage is placed in the closure member compartment and then the closure member is applied to the container. Disadvantage is seen in the need for the specialized closure member structure in place of the closure members used with containers of commercial medicinal dosage type.
In contrast to the foregoing plural compartment devices, wherein the smaller (daily dosage) compartment is refillable, the smaller medicine dosage container compartment shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,705 B1 is for single use. In this arrangement, a separator is removably secured in a container, the separator having a bottom disc member which has a sliding or light compressive fit with the interior wall of the container, providing a compartment thereabove and delineating a container compartment therebelow. A thin stem extends upwardly from the disc periphery. The separator and disc bear indications of patient, type of medication and issuing pharmacy and its mailing address.
In use of this device, a supply of medication is placed in the container, the separator disc is inserted atop the supply of medication and a further supply of medication is placed atop the separator disc. When the supply of medication atop the separator disc is depleted, the stem is pulled out of the container, removing the separator disc, which is then mailed to the pharmacy to reorder the medication. The purpose of the device is to insure continuance of medication, i.e., use of the medication remaining in the container after separator disc removal, during the reorder period and receipt period.
The present invention has as its primary object to provide a medication dosage container and dispenser of quite simple and economical nature.
It is a more particular object of the present invention to adapt commercial dosage containers with facility for separately containing medication dosages for administration over different time periods.
In one aspect, the invention provides a medicine container, comprising an upstanding body having an open mouth and a hollow interior bounded by a sidewall and a separator secured in the body and defining upper and lower compartments, the upper compartment opening into the body open mouth, the lower compartment being accessible while the separator is secured in the body.
In another aspect, the invention provides a medicine container comprising an upstanding body having an open mouth and a hollow interior bounded by a sidewall and a separator seated in the body and defining upper and lower compartments, a perimeter of the upper compartment being formed successively by the body sidewall and the separator, the perimeter preferably being of D-shape.
In a further aspect, the invention provides a medicine container, comprising an upstanding body having an open mouth and a hollow interior, the body defining an interior tapered surface bounding the hollow interior and a separator seated in the body and defining upper and lower compartments, the separator having an exterior tapered sidewall having the same taper angle as the body interior surface.
The foregoing and other features of the invention will be further understood from the ensuing detailed description of preferred embodiments and practices and from the drawings, wherein like reference numerals identify like components throughout.